This is or will be running in all the halls, which gives us prime advertising so lets really pull our efforts together this final week before break! Get with the hall councils and building captains to build momentum going into the start of the competition. – Paul Foote
iSEE will provide up to $1,000 toward trophies, printing costs, and/or the software needed for building monitors in support of Eco-Olympics this spring.
Hello Shantanu,
Congratulations on your outstanding waste diversion accomplishments in 2018! By participating in the RIGHTCYCLE* Program, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign has diverted 10,086 pounds of glove waste from landfills. Thank you for your commitment to corporate social responsibility and your continued efforts to reduce your impact on the environment.
|
9/12/2018 |
University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign |
RC4016 |
Gloves |
|
|
8/27/2018 |
University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign |
RC3983 |
Gloves |
9515 |
|
10/1/2018 |
University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign |
RC4226 |
Gloves |
71 |
|
1/17/2018 |
University of Illinois Urbana- Chemistry |
RC3362 |
Gloves |
500 |
Please remember to email rightcycle@kcc.com to request a release number prior to shipping your waste and to clearly display this number on your shipment.
It all adds up to zero landfill and a more efficient workplace.
Thank you,
Erika
The Fall 2018 semester was used as a planning stage for the Bee Campus signage project. On November 15th, the Bee Campus USA committee met to discuss the content and design on each of the permanent signs. Additionally, we discussed locations to consider for placing the signage. During Spring 2019, I plan to have the locations of the signage approved by March. Purchasing and orders should be completed by April.
We have bought the bees and hives, installed the bees, and built the fence around the hives. The bees were not established enough to take much honey from them so we stayed on the safe side and allowed the bees to keep all their honey for overwintering. Recently we bought two more hives and are hoping to split our current hives to have a total of 4 hives at the sustainable farm. As the bees now have foundation built up they should start producing more honey and brood than last year, and we are expecting to be able to harvest ample honey next Fall.
Morgan White sent the following message to labs participating in the glove recycling program on Dec. 13, 2018:
Hello Glove Recycling Contacts,
Thank you for your support of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) waste reduction efforts, in connection with the Kimberly-Clark Professionals RightCycle program. We are very appreciative of the initiative and time you all have dedicated to glove recycling to help reduce landfill waste from the University of Illinois over the past three years. I’m also emailing the people who have expressed interest in joining the program, so you are aware of these changes.
I am writing to let you know that we will halt glove recycling for research labs and teaching labs on campus, as of the end of this calendar year. The RightCycle program is only intended for recycling non-hazardous materials, and the majority of our labs are using gloves as protection against hazards or potential hazards. Therefore, we will continue to participate in RightCycle only with gloves used for food service, starting in 2019. If you are collecting gloves to recycle from a lab on campus, please do not drop off gloves and do not ship them to Kimberly-Clark after December 31, 2018.
If you and your colleagues in research and teaching labs would like to continue actively supporting campus sustainability, please join the Certified Green Lab Program at https://go.illinois.edu/greenlab, coordinated through the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE).
Please let me know if you have any questions about glove recycling, and have a happy holiday season.
Thanks,
Morgan
The updates below apply to the week ending Dec. 9, 2018.
Hi Pete and Shawn--
This past week, zero-waste activity focused on a major change to the glove recycling program. Morgan and I spoke with Monica Miller on Friday and heard concerns about the potential for labs (especially research labs) to inadvertently place hazardous materials in the recycling stream. Monica pointed out the complexities of compliance, especially when staff turns over at a lab. The determination was to stop glove recycling at labs. There may be some exceptions that DRS would need to determine on a case-by-case basis.
Morgan is drafting a message to the labs to tell them of the changes, which will take effect Dec. 31. Per Monica's request, I have contacted Serenity Desmond at Noyes and the Chem Annex to ask her to contact Monica about the change. Monica is familiar with ISTC's practices and is comfortable with their continued participation. There is no issue with Dining Services or food venues continuing to participate.
I have contacted the BER students who were trying to find the names of teaching coordinators so that DRS could talk with them under the previous plan. I told them to send the information they have already collected but that they can stop. Morgan and I hope to enlist them to help expand the program in food venues, and possibly to promote RightCycle to restaurants in the community.
Best regards,
Marya Ryan
| Recruited organization team, dinner with Hillel, working on getting sponsors for the spring comptetition |
| Be part of the Freezer Challenge, send emails, help promote |
| Largely completed, ongoing main |
| Very Well, Student intern keeps plants going, native prairie plants on south side of building, front and courtyard, woodland garden, northeast corner |
| FS mows it every years, little weeding |
| suffering from invasion of violets, thought given to aiding those plants |
| Coming along well, over 3 years, removed invasive honey suckle, so thick you could not walk though the woods, removing other invasive plants, put out seeds and seedlings to other native plants, used as outdoor lab for variety of classes |
On November 12, 2018, Sarthak Prasad from Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) presented a Food Waste Management study to compare the current mode of food waste management (EnviroPure) with 7 other food waste management equipment.
He recommended the Housing at UofI switched from the EnviroPure systems to InSinkerator's Grind2Energy systems as food waste processing system, before sending the processed food waste (in slurry form) to the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) in Urbana, IL. UCSD's Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) has existing anaerobic digesters that can convert food waste into valuable biogas for electricity generation.
See attached the presentation in PDF form and the detailed cost analysis.
With the students back in town for the semester, Marya Ryan re-contacted the Business in Environmental Responsibility (BER) volunteers she spoke with in the spring. The volunteers are helping with the glove recycling program. Over the summer, they identified contacts for nonparticipating departments with $2,000 or more in nitrile glove purchases for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2017-2018. Ryan emailed their contact person, Meghna Vijayan, and caught her up on events over the summer, such as the relocation of the trailer at PPSB and F&S's work with the Division of Research Safety. Ryan also asked whether they could help identify teaching coordinators in the teaching labs to assist with that work.
Morgan White and Marya Ryan had a phone call with Monica Miller of the Division of Research Safety (DRS) and Shantanu Pai. F&S is working with DRS to ensure that labs/facilities participating in the glove recycling program are employing best safety practices to prevent biohazards and dangerous chemicals from entering the recycling stream. Ryan has emails out to participating labs to gather lab names, room numbers, and PI contact information so that F&S can start assessing any additional instructions, training, or other program components that will support safe practices.
The glove recycling trailer was moved to a different location at the Physical Plant Services Building during the summer of 2018. Marya Ryan sent a map showing the new location to all departments participating in the glove recycling program on August 14, 2018. The information on the iCAP portal page was also updated to reflect the change.
When the glove recycling storage container is full, Housing Food Stores Operations Manager Michael Olinger contacts Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark then comes to campus and loads the pallets of gloves into a truck to recycle them.
Several locations that have been participating in glove recycling were missing from the project locations map. Marya Ryan added them on July 29. They are Florida Avenue Residence Halls, Ikenberry Commons, Illinois Street Residence Halls, Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls, and Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls.
La Casa Cultural Latina is joining the glove recycling program. As of July 2018, they are in the process of obtaining a bin for collection at their site. The site has been added to the project locations map.
A web form is now available for departments to use when signing up to participate in the glove recycling program. Program participation instructions on the iCAP web page for the program have been updated to include the link. The form is to be used instead of emailing the zero-waste coordinator directly.
The location to drop off gloves at the Physical Plant Services Building (PPSB) changed in the summer of 2018. The map showing the location was updated accordingly. It is still at PPSB but in a slightly different location there.
In July 2018, BER student volunteers identified contacts for about 15 departments that purchase significant quantities of nitrile gloves but do not currenty participate in the glove recycling program. In the fall, volunteers will follow up with the contacts to inquire about interest in participation.
